GETTING BACK INTO STUDYING

Everything else has taken a backseat lately as I recently started a course with the OCA, I knew I wanted to get a degree but had no clue what and didn’t want to rush into something after school. I’d always planned to something based around creativity but could never decide on a certain aspect. The Creative Arts degree that the OCA offers allows you to study a range of topics, to begin with (Contemporary Art, Creative Writing, Visual Communications, Photography, Textiles) and then you choose 2 of these to develop further. This is perfect for me as I’ll be able to explore the different avenues and can make a better-informed choice on what I’m more interested in. Right now, I think I’ll choose writing and photography since I enjoy them both and think they could be pretty useful in terms of the potential careers I’d be interested in - another positive being the fact that hopefully, this will open up new job opportunities too.

So what is the OCA? Well, the Open College of the Arts is for those that want to do distance learning rather than on campus. Obviously, that can benefit people for various reasons, for me, I want to continue saving up money by working and doing the degree on a part-time basis. The OCA is actually part of the University of the Arts in London so the degree you receive is recognised as completely legitimate. 

I was a little apprehensive before starting, I’d been looking at so many different courses for so long but finally committing to one felt great. I haven’t properly studied since finishing my A Levels, besides a short design course and procrastinating is a whole other problem! However, so far I've been really productive with it and have gotten back into a routine of studying pretty well. I do think that because it’s new and different I’m very much motivated but I’m sure that down the line I won’t always be quite as consistently productive! 

As part of the studying process, you have to keep a learning log, something that basically documents everything you do, including your coursework, assignments and any research. You’re actually advised to do this in blog form which is obviously ideal for me since I have experience! You can do it solely in paper form but they also recommend a mix of both - I like handwriting things and use mind maps a lot for planning so that is a plus. I’ve actually just uploaded a couple of sketches so it’s not all typed work! I’ve written 9 posts in 9 days so this blog has definitely been a little neglected but now I’m in a routine I hope I can be more consistent with both! 

If anyone is interested in doing a creative based degree and would like to do it from home then looking into the OCA is definitely something I’d recommend as they offer various different courses. Please do ask me any questions if you’d like to know anything else but I’ll definitely post updates on here every so often since it’s a big part of my life now and will be interesting to look back on it!